


Not Just an Illusion

by wedemandtobetakenseriously



Category: Sanders Sides (Web Series)
Genre: Human Sides (Sanders Sides), M/M, Magic, Magicians, Prince Anxiety | Virgil Sanders, Prince Creativity | Roman "Princey" Sanders, Principal Patton Sanders, Prinxiety - Freeform
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-09-07
Updated: 2019-09-21
Packaged: 2020-10-11 12:49:26
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,441
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20546423
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/wedemandtobetakenseriously/pseuds/wedemandtobetakenseriously
Summary: When a reserved and frankly, not so successful magician is forced to work with not only the most famous magician but also the most arrogant man in the entire state of Florida, nothing less than disaster can ensue. While both men think that once the job is done they'll both be able to move on and simply remember the performance as a bad gig, they aren't so lucky.





	1. The Start of a Not so Perfect Magic Act

Roman was a magician. A very eccentric magician. A very famous, handsome, charming, flirtatious, pretty, gay, outgoing, creative, and eccentric magician. Virgil was also a magician. A more reserved magician. A less famous, just as handsome, anxious, irritable, rugged, confused, tame, simple, and reserved magician. The two were hardly alike besides in profession. Even in their work, they were different. Roman was all show. He focused on distracting the audience rather than focusing on the fine work of his illusions. He was flamboyant and eccentric with colorful costumes and set pieces. Virgil, on the other hand, had very few decorations in his act. Plain costume, not so much flare. His magic was truly phenomenal, for he was great at hiding the secrets of his tricks. Audiences reacted very differently to the two magicians. People loved Roman’s shows, allowing him to be quite wealthy and popular. Virgil didn’t get the same love from audiences. They found is act boring and frankly “lame”. So, he worked other jobs on the side when he could find them and keep them. While the two had never met, Virgil, of course, had heard of Roman, as he was one of the greats in the industry. Personally, Virgil despised Roman. He found him annoying and not as good as magic as everyone thought. There was, however, a part of Virgil that admired Roman. A part of him that looked up to Roman’s showmanship. A part of him that did appreciate the work Roman’s done in the magician community. A part of Virgil, while a very small part, that very much liked Roman. But the largest part of him found Roman’s act and persona very irritating.  
Each year, Virgil had at least one gig that was promised to him. He would perform every Halloween day at Littlewood elementary school. Ever since an old friend of Virgil’s, Patton M., had been made the principal of the school, he invited Virgil to perform there annually. An assembly would be heald and Virgil would perform a small and short act, for which Patton paid him decently. This year, however, there were some changes to that plan. One of the teachers at Littlewood, Logan L., had come to Patton saying that several of the fifth graders had requested that Roman was brought in to put on a show rather than Virgil. Patton was a little surprised by this because he greatly enjoyed Virgil’s show each year and had been under the impression that the kids did too. However, wanting to please the students, he was able to hire Roman to perform on Halloween too. Still caring a lot about keeping his promise to Virgil, he didn’t cancel Virgil’s show but rather delivered to him the news that he would be performing with Roman.  
“You what?” Virgil said into the phone, shocked.  
“It will be awesome! Both of you are such great magicians, and you guys can be friends!” Patton said excitedly.  
“Patton, I really don’t think that’s a good idea, we’re very different and-”  
“Aw come on! Logan and I are super different but he’s still one of my best friends!”  
“Alright, fine, but next time can you please let me know before you hire another magician?”  
“Of course, I’m sorry kiddo.”  
“It’s okay, Patton. I’ll talk to you later.”  
“See you, Virge!” Patton said before he hung up. Virgil sighed and mumbled to himself about how much he wasn’t looking forward to working with the arrogant brat that was “Prince Roman”. Just then, Virgil’s phone buzzed with a text from Patton. It read “Oh! By the way, I figured you and Roman would need to practice your act before the 31st, so you guys can come by the auditorium after school on Friday!” Virgil put his head in his hands and groaned. He already had a show planned for this year and didn’t expect it would work as smoothly with another person, especially not Roman. He laid down on his bed and stared at the ceiling for a little while, overthinking. After probably an hour and a half, he rolled over to push his face into his pillow before he drifted off to dreamland. 

When Friday eventually rolled around two days later, Virgil woke up feeling off. He was more anxious than usual and easier to upset than usual. At four-forty-five, Virgil pulled his car into the driveway of the elementary school, a little irritated from the traffic that he was stuck in getting there. Just as he got out of his car, a hot pink Subaru pulls into the parking lot. It had paint and glitter and all sorts of decorations on it. To Virgil, the car looked like a craft made by a preschooler. On the side of the car, “Roman!” was written out in the colors of the rainbow. As a slightly taller than average man with tan skin and short, peach-colored hair stepped out of the car, Virgil began quickly walking into the building and towards the auditorium.  
“Virgil! Hey, kiddo!” Patton greeted when Virgil walked through the doors to the multipurpose room.  
“Hi, Pat,” Virgil said with a small smile. “I’m going to put my stuff backstage.” he continued before running up the stairs and behind the curtains of the stage. Though he knew he would have to meet him in a matter of minutes, Virgil was trying to avoid meeting Roman for as long as he possibly could. While looking through his box props to make sure he had everything, he heard the auditorium door open and close.  
“Hi! You must be Roman!” He heard Patton say happily. Virgil zoned out the rest of the conversation but did take note that Roman’s voice was much deeper than he had thought, which took him by surprise. When Roman walked through the curtains Virgil was making sure to have his back facing him, just to save himself a few seconds before meeting the famous magician.  
“Oh, hey, you must be Virgil,” Roman said once he realized that Virgil was there.  
“Mhm, and you’re Roman.” Virgil looks over his shoulder at the taller man. He hadn’t noticed his outfit before. He was wearing sparkly red pants, red-tinted retro sunglasses, a white V-neck with red around the neck area, and rainbow earrings. Virgil scrunched his nose at all the color and pizzazz of Roman’s outfit. He was used to wearing a dark grey hoodie every day with baggy sweatpants unless his work called for anything different.  
Roman, however, didn’t seem to notice this fact and went on to start unpacking his bag full of decorations and props and god knows what but not before offering a simple “Yup,” to Virgil’s previous statement. “So, since you’re a fellow magician, I presume you’re a fan,” Roman said arrogantly.  
Virgil scoffed. "No need to flatter yourself," he hissed. Roman was a bit taken aback by this.  
“Oh, do you think you could perform better than me?” He asked, challenging the other magician.  
“Most definitely,” Virgil said confidently. Roman just laughed, slightly offended. Once both men had finished unpacking their things, Roman turned to Virgil.  
“So, do you have any ideas for an act?”  
“I HAD an entire one-man act planned, but now that you’re here it probably won’t work so well,” Virgil said, his annoyance clear in his tone. Roman looked at Virgil, confused. He wasn’t sure why this guy hated him so much, but if Virgil hated Roman, then Roman had no problem with hating Virgil.  
“It’s not my fault I’m an audience favorite and the kids at this school have good taste in magicians,” He snapped back.  
”Okay, we get it, you’re famous, but that doesn’t mean you’re the best magician around, you know,” Virgil huffed.  
“I’m pretty sure it does, actually,” Roman said with a cocky smirk.  
Just as Virgil opened his mouth to respond, but instead, rolled his eyes and shook his head.  
“Let’s just get to work,” He looked at Roman. Over the next three hours, the two boys did a combination of fighting and putting together a magic show. They ran through the tricks they would do a few times. Both men had already had illusions they planned on performing, so it was mostly a matter of agreeing on what, when, and how everything would be. Roman constantly irritated Virgil with his grand suggestions, while Virgil bored Roman half to death with each and everything he said. After both Virgil and Roman couldn’t stand one more second near the other, they decided to call it a day and meet up again on Monday to practice a little.  
Virgil found his way to Patton's office to thank him for letting the magicians use the auditorium for practice before quickly getting to his car to head home for the day.


	2. A Not so Straight Display of Illusions

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> It's finally time for Virgil and Roman to preform their trainwreck of a magic act and even as it nears its end, things seem to be going fine. No strings attached, they would go their separate ways with no problem. Or maybe something would happen that gets in the way of that. It's a possibility that a realization could be made. Maybe that'll lead to something a little more important than a magic show at an elementary school. But, probably not... right?

When Roman got home after his rehearsal with Virgil, he sat on his bed and stared at his aquarium of fish.   
“Why didn’t he like me?” He asked himself. “I didn’t even do anything to him! I mean, of course, I don’t care because he was lame and rude and everything, but still!” Roman laid down on his bed and thought of all the reasons why Virgil could have hated him. “I don’t even want him to like me, it’s not like he’s cool or anything, he’s a jerk, but UGH” he yelled and stuffed his face in his pillow. Soon enough, he dozed off to thoughts of why his new partner in magic might have disliked him. 

Monday afternoon finally came, and Roman was definitely not looking forward to his visit to Littlewood. When he saw a car that he recognized as Virgil’s from Friday, his stomach turned. There was something about that little punk that made Roman feel upset. Once he went inside he found Virgil in the same spot he had been when Roman had entered the auditorium for the first time.  
“Hey, emo,” Roman giggled a little, proud of himself for coming up with that nickname.   
“Greetings, princey,” Virgil shot back, imitating Roman’s giggle. Roman, feeling a little hurt, rolled his eyes and sat himself down, his legs crossed, in front of Virgil. Virgil looked up at him and laughed. “What are you, a six-year-old?”  
“Criss-cross-applesauce isn’t just for first graders!” Roman said defensively  
“Calling it ‘ criss-cross-applesauce’ definitely is, though,” Virgil cackled.  
“Oh, shut up, JD lightful,” Roman growled. Virgil raised an eyebrow.   
“JD lightful?”  
“You know? JD from Heathers? I waste my best material on you.” Roman groaned.   
“Nerd,” Virgil mumbled.   
“Famous nerd.” Roman corrected.   
“No one cares, Romano.”   
“Let’s just get to work.”  
“Fine.”   
With that, the two got up and started to run through the show. At one point, Roman tried to blow glitter to the fake audience, but very intentionally changed the direction in which the glitter was blowing to blow it directly into his partners face. Virgil spat and rubbed his eyes. “You did that on purpose, jerk!”  
“Be quiet, Brad Pitiful.” Roman stuck his tongue out at Virgil.  
“That’s not even clever!”  
"Wow, rude.”  
“I’m done with this,” Virgil said, storming off the stage. For some reason, Roman felt himself not wanting Virgil to leave. But he didn’t do anything to stop him.   
“See you tomorrow, emo,” Roman called out as Virgil got close to the door.  
“Let’s hope not, princey,” Virgil said over his shoulder. Roman sat himself down on the stage. After a few minutes of staring at the wall, he just yelled. He wasn’t sure why exactly, but he was positive it had something to do with Virgil.   
“What a jerk,” Roman said to himself. “A rude, boring, emo jerk,” Roman sighed. “So why do I care if he likes me? ..Uhm, I don't care!” Roman argued with himself. “I don't..” He continued to stare at the wall for a good ten minutes before he hopped off the stage and headed to the parking lot. After all, there wasn't much he could do without the other half of his act. He drove home and made his way to his room. He put some popcorn in the microwave and turned on The Little Mermaid. Roman hated being alone. Like seriously hated it. With an overwhelming passion. But with traveling so much and being single plus living by himself, he was alone a lot. Once the movie ended he proceeded to watch a few other Disney movies before he fell asleep, spilling his popcorn. 

“The show is tomorrow, we are NOT adding anything big like that,” Virgil argued.   
“Come on! A confetti explosion would be awesome!” Roman pleaded. Virgil looked at him blankly.   
“No,”  
“Please?”  
“Never!”  
“Never ever?”  
“You’re a child.” Virgil glared at Roman, who just smiled like the toddler he was at heart.   
“A famous child,” Roman said, he’d come to love annoying Virgil more than almost anything. Virgil growled, he hated when Roman bragged about his fame.  
“I hate you,” He spat.   
“Hate you too, emo,” Roman replied, smugly. Virgil just rolled his eyes and they continued rehearsal. They bickered the entire time, but the show seemed solid and if they managed to go through the show without killing each other, it would be fine. However, even as he sat at home after practicing, Roman couldn’t help but think of how he didn’t mean it when he told Virgil he hated him. That didn’t make sense to him at all. He should hate Virgil. He feels like he hates Virgil, I mean, he’s mean and rude, but there’s something about him. Something about him that makes Roman incapable of hating him.   
Roman realized he’d been thinking about Virgil a lot since Friday. He figured this was just because he was working with him, but.. maybe it was something else. Probably not though, Roman thought. Once he got bored of thinking, he went over to his jewelry cabinet and found a ring. He started doing a few tricks with it. Virgil did a lot of tricks with his ring. He wore it all the time, it was black with a very light grey line in the middle of it. Roman thought it was a pretty ring, but of course, would never say that to Virgil. Roman played around with his own ring and a few cards for hours until it was very late in the night. At that point, he changed into his fuzzy red robe and tucked himself into bed. 

The next morning, Roman got dressed in a costume he had gotten made a while back that he never used. It was a prince costume, complete with a crown and cape. It wasn’t totally flashy but it was a cool Halloween costume in Roman’s opinion.   
He got to the school a little early. Despite his effort to be punctual, Patton and Virgil were both already backstage, waiting for him. Patton was dressed as a dog, with brown ears, a face painted nose and whiskers, a dog collar around his neck that said “Patton”, and a fuzzy brown sweater and pants. Virgil was a vampire. Roman had to admit, Virgil looked cool. He had a cloak that was black on the outside and purple on the inside, a white button-down shirt, a black vest, and black dress pants. Roman and Virgil stared at each other for a long moment  
“You boys ready to perform?” Patton asked with a huge smile on his face.   
The two other men looked back at Patton before Roman replied with a peppy, “Yup!” Virgil made a weird face in response to Roman’s energy.   
“Cool beans! I’ll go tell everyone!” Patton said with glee before skipping off somewhere.   
“Ready, you’re highness?” Virgil asked, and for once there was very little hostility in his voice.  
“Born ready, bloodsucker.” Roman smiled a little before going to set up his things for the show. A few moments later Patton’s voice was heard on the loudspeakers.  
“All students and staff please report to the auditorium for the annual magic show!” he said before the speaker made a little static noise and turned off. The two magicians were silent for once as they double-checked that they were ready for the show. They heard kids start to come into the auditorium and once the chatter of students filled the entire space, Patton showed up backstage.   
“Whenever you’re ready. Good luck guys!”  
“Thanks, Patton!” Roman yelled as softly as he could after Patton as he ran back out to the audience. Roman looked over at Virgil and smiled, half to himself. Virgil looked back at him and stared blankly for a moment before he cracked a small smile. Before the Virgil could say or do anything else, Roman ran through the curtain to start the show. The show went well. While the magic was good and the kids liked it, it was more like two solo acts performing at the same time rather than two people performing together. Roman was loud and exciting with audience participation and big gestures while Virgil did small illusions with his ring, a deck of cards, and a few coins. Neither incorporated the other into their act, but surprisingly, they went the entire show without arguing or getting mad at each other, even if a few dirty looks and glares were given.   
After the show was over the two magicians broke off to go talk to students and/or staff members. Tons of kids swarmed around Roman while hardly any so much as glanced at Virgil. The janitor talked to Virgil about how he liked the act, but that it would have been better if he brought back the live snake from last year. Through giving autographs, answering questions, and entertaining the students who had swarmed around him, Roman saw something happen.   
Virgil was sitting on the edge of the stage, alone, when a little girl in a fairy costume pushed a boy who looked very much like her but was wearing a ninja costume underneath a black hoodie towards Virgil.   
“Maggie I-“ the boy seemed to try to protest the little girl's action, but once he was face to face with Virgil he stopped. “Uhm, h-hi.” The kid stammered.   
“Hello,” Virgil said with a smile. Though it wouldn’t seem like it, Virgil was great with kids. He babysat when he was younger, so he was very used to both befriending and taking care of children.   
Before the little boy got a chance to say another word, the girl in the fairy costume chimed in with “Hi! I’m Maggie and this is my brother, Max. He really liked your shows this year and last year, but he was scared to talk to you, so I forced him to.” Max looked embarrassed. Virgil chuckled a little kneeled to be level with the kids.   
“Well, it’s very nice to meet you two, and I’m glad you liked my show. Also, it’s okay to be scared to talk to people Max, I was the same way when I was your age.” Virgil assured the young boy. Max’s eyes lit up.   
“Really?” He asked. Virgil nodded in response. Max looked at his sister who smiled at him. Max proceeded to talk to Virgil about his favorite points of the show. The two seemed to share a love for both magic and mystery. Virgil even taught Max one of the easier coin tricks he had performed. Max was absolutely delighted to be able to do the trick.  
Eventually, Max’s teacher called for the kids to get in a line. Before Max followed his sister into line, he hugged Virgil. Virgil sat himself back on the edge of the stage and watched as the auditorium cleared out. As the kids who had crowded Roman rushed to their teacher, he was a little disappointed at the loss of attention, but he had other things on his mind. He was thinking about Virgil being so nice to that little kid. It makes Roman feel weird for some reason. At that moment, when the last door to the auditorium closed, something clicked in Roman’s brain. He realized why he felt weird about Virgil. He understood exactly why he couldn’t get him out of his head. He wasn’t exactly happy with this realization, and so, elected to try and ignore it.   
As he went backstage to grab his things, Virgil, of course, was there doing the same thing. They both ignored each other until Roman was done getting his stuff.   
“Hey,” he started, “It uhm.. wasn’t totally horrible working with you.” Virgil looked up at him. Then he smiled.   
“Same goes to you.” He simply replied.   
“Until next time, emo,” Roman said, walking past Virgil to exit the stage.   
“Until next time, princey.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> HI! Here's chapter two :) I hope you guys like it, it's not really my best but there will be some more chapters coming soon.

**Author's Note:**

> Wowsa, I hope you guys liked that! This is the first fanfic I've ever posted and I'll post more if anyone wants. Anyway, the idea of two dumb gay magicians was inspired by Gob and Tony Wonder from Arrested Development if anyone watches that which I'm sure no one does but it's an awesome show. That's pretty much it so stay tuned for Chapter 2!


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